2-913-541 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Dinner in the Crystal Palace, in Celebration of the Centenary of the Society of Arts, 1854. 'As the Society of Arts claims the honour of the parentage of the Great Exhibition of 1851, and as the Crystal Palace [in Sydenham] stands in a filial relation to that great event, the Council of the Society of Arts very properly considered it both agreeable and appropriate that, on the completion of its first centenary, its members should assemble under the auspices and protection of the roof of its famous crystal grandchild...Originally founded as a society for the promotion of arts and manufactures, it...took "commerce" under its protection. Its all-embracing arms have, during the past year, been thrown around the sacred cause of "education," and its educational exhibition, which opened last week, promises to be as successful as any of the previous efforts of the society'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.